The Mythology and Folklore Database
I4 - Thunder rides across the sky.
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Source Data from Berezkin's Analytics Catalogue, if using this data please acknowledge and link to it here:
Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of Motif
When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles.Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature
I4 has 7 other sub-motifsI4. When a vehicle moves across the sky, thunder rumbles. I4a. Thunder falls to earth and cannot rise. Usually, a person helps it return to the sky. I4b. A person helps thunder defeat the enemy. I4c. The enemy of the thunderer temporarily defeats and captures him. I4d. An enemy steals a weapon (usually a musical instrument) used by the thunder god to summon a storm. The thunder god or his assistant comes unrecognised to the thief, takes possession of his weapon and kills his enemies. I4d1. An enemy steals the tendons (heart and eyes) of a thunder god, who returns them and prevails over his enemy. Cf. motif L57A, "The hero's companion returns his organ." I4e. An anthropomorphic deity (associated with thunder and rain) rides on a cloud or a cloud. I4F. The hero and his opponent engage in single combat and are still fighting in the sky. This is thunder. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of I4's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K97 | 99.74% | A man prepares to kill a large bird, but does not kill it. When the bird later carries him, it pretends to leave him on a rock or throw him down. In doing so, it makes it clear how frightened it was. Either the bird first drops and catches the man, and later he makes her experience fear herself (the Volyn variant is slightly different). |
| F70E1 | 99.72% | An old man needs a son to do men's work. (Only the youngest) daughter takes on this task (successfully passing the test set by her father), pretending to be a man. |
| K56A4 | 99.72% | When a kind girl returns home, an animal or bird (usually a dog) announces that she is well, but when an unkind girl returns or when her dead body is brought back, the dog (rooster, crow) announces that something is wrong with her. |
| J32D | 99.66% | The girl will be won by the one who, on horseback or by some other means, quickly reaches a hard-to-reach place (the top of a tower, a mountain, the upper floor of a palace, the top steps of a staircase, a bridge, the bottom of a chasm, jumps over a moat, etc.). Usually, the girl herself is located where the suitor must climb or (rarely) descend. In Italian versions, the hero wins tournaments. |
| K27X3A | 99.59% | When a husband sets off on a difficult mission, his magical wife gives him her towel or scarf, instructing him to use only those items (usually so that her relatives will recognise him as their son-in-law). |
| K161 | 99.57% | A character who has deprived a dragon (demon, thunder) of its freedom orders others not to unlock the dungeon (not to enter a certain room, not to give the chained creature anything to drink, etc.). The prohibition is violated, the chained creature is freed, which leads to disaster. Cf. motif K100f1. |
| M199L | 99.56% | When the giant blew, sneezed, etc., or let go of the bent tree on which the man was sitting, the man was thrown far away. The man says that he did it of his own free will (to show how he can fly, to repair the roof, etc.). |
| K64A | 99.56% | A man blinds a sleeping or immobile giant-cannibal and escapes from him. |
| K103D | 99.55% | An animal (rarely a demonic creature) orders the hero or heroine to retrieve necessary items from its ear or to enter its ear in order to transform, fall asleep, etc. |
| K85D | 99.55% | Covered with skins (coated with resin and sprinkled with sand, etc.), the mighty horse becomes invulnerable to the bites of other horses. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 43 traditions: Marathi (incl. Bhamta; incl. Mumbai area), Early Chinese written sources, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Ancient Greece, Lithuanians, Latvians, Vepsians, Western Sami, Swedes, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Persians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Laks, Kumyk, Terekemen, Nogai, Tats, Mingrelians (Megrelians), Laz, Georgians, Armenians, Gagauz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Nenets, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Terek Cossacks, Russian Federation